Top seed and world No.1 Dinara Safina fought off a gutsy comeback from Lucie Safarova to beat the Czech 6-0 4-6 6-3. Safina raced through the first set, but stumbled in the second to twice lose her serve. In the decider the Russian made a crucial break in the sixth game and later wrapped up the win on the second match point.
Safina will play Alona Bondarenko in the quarterfinals. Bondarenko, who had upset Svetlana Kuznetsova in the previous round, defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-0 2-6 6-3. The former world No.5 Chakvetadze still hasn’t reached any quarterfinals in 2009.
Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic swept past qualifier Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open where she’ll play Patty Schnyder. Jankovic’s serve was broken two times during the third-round match, but still, she lost only four games to Vesnina.
Seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka fell to Agnes Szavay 4-6 6-2 6-2 in the third round. Szavay will next face Amelie Mauresmo, who booked her place in the quarters yesterday, along with Vera Dushevina who will play Caroline Wozniacki, the winner over Alisa Kleybanova in their today’s encounter, with the score 6-2 6-2. By winning the match, Wozniacki will crack the Top 10. (photo by our reader Elisa)
It is misleading that Wozniacki cracked the top 10. This is the thirteenth tournament that she has played in, including Madrid. That is 3 more than No. 1 rank Safina, 2 more than JJ who is rank fourth. She has a losing record against top 10 players 2 wins and 5 loses. The only two wins came against Dementieva after AO 09, which has seen a decline in Dementieva’s level of play (the girl hasn’t been the same after her loss in the semis). Wozniacki skipped Dubai were all the top players were and opted to play in Memphis, and lost badly to Azarenka in the finals. All of this tells me that Wozniacki cracked the top 10 by playing a lot of small tournaments, beat the cup cakes, rack up a bunch of points with limited quality wins, I guess quality wins don’t count in WTA. In college (American) football a team who plays and defeats a lot of cup cakes in a season and lose to rank opponents we called them over-rated.
is true but anyway i like wozniacki
An interesting concept and analysis; however the turmoil with which the WTA Tour experiences presently does not render such a ‘breakthrough’ shocking. Let’s be patient and hope Caro’s potential blooms…
I agree Wozzy’s breakthrough is not shocking, JJ reached the number one ranking in a similar manner. Caro’s upside is that she is young and can still develop her game. I’m also calling JJ the most over-rated number one ranked player.
Ok, Carlos, now that you’re attacking JJ, you know I have to interfere. 🙂 But honestly, I don’t think she’s the most over-rated No.1, simply because most people share your opinion that she shouldn’t have been No.1.
Ms. Marija actually you convince me that JJ got to the the number one ranking fair and square, the way WTA Tour is set up nowadays makes it okay, quantity over quality. Once again my mentality still is “Show me the titles’. Prior to JJ did every number one rank player have won at least a GS title? How about at least one of the six major titles? JJ’s resume pales in comparison to the previous number one rank players. How does JJ’s resume compare to your fellow Novi Sad native Monica Seles? So yes JJ is the most over-rated number one rank player. For the record I’m not attacking JJ I’m just stating the facts.:)
Clijsters was ranked #1 way before her first Grand Slam win and that doesn’t make her undeserving of it. Same happened with Amelie Mauresmo who ended up winning 2 Grand Slams, and Dinara Safina is in the same position as JJ. So it is true that JJ was not one of the strongest world #1 in history but there might still be a lot of titles to come in her career.
Clijsters resume is far better than JJ’s.
Clijsters before winning GS she had 27 titles JJ has right now has 10. Clijster had won Indian Wells twice and Miami once; and Clijster had 4 GS final appearance, so far JJ has one.
Dinara has won the same number of titles s JJ but I think her resume is better than JJ’s. Silver medal in the Olympics, and 2 GS finals so far.
JJ may end up winning GS titles and be rank number one again, but the first time around that she was number one it is in my book the most over-rated.
Carlos, it seems we define “overrate” in a different manner. My dictionary says: overrate – to have too good an opinion of something. I think that you’re refering to something like “overranked”. I think that JJ is actually the most underrated No.1, as people constantly attacked her for supposedly not deserving it.
I agree, Monica Seles’ and Jelena Jankovic’s resumes can’t be compared.
In college, sports fans use the word “Over-rated” when a team is highly rank and lack quality wins. Mainly is use as a taunting chant that opposing fans of a rank team use, during a game if a highly rank team is losing or loses to a lesser opponent.
Ex. If the #4 rank team plays and loses to the #20 rank team. The fans of the team rank #20 will chant “over-rated”, during the game whether is a close game or they are winning; not to mention if they end up winning the game (JJ and P.Schnyder, does it rings a bell?).
Ah, ok. I new we had a misunderstanding. I supposed you were referring to that meaning of the word.